Can you imagine a glacier some 23 kilometres long, resembling a frozen river, meandering at the foot of majestic mountains?
Too surreal? And yet this phenomenon still exists and is accessible to mere mortals. I wrote “still” because, due to the warming of the climate, every year the tongue of the glacier retreats by another metre.
The largest and longest glacier in the Alps
We are of course talking about the Grosser Aletschgletscher, the largest and longest glacier in the Alps. It forms the core of the Swiss Jungfrau – Aletsch Alps region, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2001.
On the route I have proposed, this glacier is accessible literally at your fingertips. The entire trail runs at more than 2’000 m above sea level, and its main section leads right along the “edge of the glacier”. You can also descend to it at designated points. One of these is just behind the small lake Märjelensee.
Unusual panorama
Before you get close to the glacier, however, an amazing experience awaits you at the top station of the cable car, just below the Eggishorn peak.
From here, you have a breathtaking view of the glacier and the three- and four-thousand metre peaks, including the famous trio of Jungfrau (4’158m. ), Mönch (4’107m) and Eiger (3’967m), as well as the Aletschhorn (4’193m), Matterhorn (4’478m) and many other fantastic peaks.
Reserve some time for this place. I also recommend going up, at least halfway, to the summit of Eggishorn (2’926m). From here you can take sensational photos.
The route continues down to Märjelen Stausee and the Glacierstube mountain hut. From there you are only a few hundred metres from the glacier.
Underground tunnels
It is interesting to note that in times when the Aletschgletscher glacier was much more powerful than it is today, the Märjelen lake often flooded and posed a threat to the local villages. The engineers thought about how to remedy this. After several earlier, less successful attempts to lower the level of the lake, finally between 1889 and 1894 a 500-metre-long tunnel was built through the rock in the direction of Fieschertal. Paradoxically, this underground drainage channel was only used once, in 1896. At that time the water flowed through the channel for six weeks. Since then the lake level has not reached the tunnel entrance.
In contrast, another tunnel, the Tälligrattunnel, about one kilometre long, was built in the 1980s to supply water to the Aletsch region, including Riederalp. And I mention it here because it is currently used as a shortcut for hikers and as a supply route for a dam and a mountain hut.
The Glacierstube mountain hut of today, on the other hand, was at the time an accommodation facility built for the duration of the tunnel and dam construction work.
Some tips on how to get there
Finally, we took two gondolas up to Eggishorn, starting from the village of Fiesch. Tickets are quite expensive, but if you plan to ride several gondolas, I recommend buying a Wanderpass. This includes free travel on all Aletsch Bahnen AG cable cars (Riederalp, Bettmeralp, Fiesch – Eggishorn) and on the route Mörel – Betten Talstation – Fiesch – Fürgangen. It’s much cheaper, and Halbtax- and General- Abo holders have additional discounts.
As for the return, we took the gondola from Blausee to Riederalp Moosfluh and then from Riederalp West to Mörel. There is another cable car between these stations, Riederalp Mitte, but it runs much less frequently. If you’re feeling up to it, you can of course climb down on your own.
